


You think me old (better watch your back)

by GreenDragonette



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Angst and Humor, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Bucky Barnes Gets a Hug, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, How Do I Tag, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Steve Rogers Has Issues, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27715898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenDragonette/pseuds/GreenDragonette
Summary: “I hope you like it, Freeze-dry, ‘cause you’re one of us now. And we’ll never let you go. Mwahaha!” Tony rubs his hands, doing a fair resemblance of a villain laugh. More than a few people jump in their seats and nervously look around. Stark ignores them.Aka: How would Avengers and CA:TWS go, if WW2 Hydra made a bunch of kids-Steve's clones, and Bucky adopted them.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 108
Collections: BL favorites





	You think me old (better watch your back)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elizabear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabear/gifts).
  * Inspired by [it’s good to be young but let’s not kid ourselves](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6334252) by [suzukiblu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu). 



> This sprouted after I left a comment on another fic. I gift it to elizabear, the enabler whose reply to my comment nagged at me until I wrote this. It's especially frustrating because I really should do something else, like prepare for a zillion urgent projects, or sleep. I hope you're proud of yourself, you horrible, horrible being.
> 
> Disclamer: I have no knowledge about how anything in USA works.  
> Unbeta'ed, like the rest of my works.

Tony is so similar to Howard that half the time Steve has to remind himself it’s not his old friend. Once or twice, he almost calls the man by wrong name. In his defense, it’s less than a month for him, and the apple does not fall far from the tree at all.

At first he doesn’t notice the thing, too busy rolling eyes at the familiar act, until he stands on the opposite side of the room. Tony Starks Fury so hard there’d be clouds of steam rising form Director’s ears were they in a cartoon. A miniscule movement catches his eye; Phil’s expression, usually a bland, pleasant-ish smile, now appears amused and proud as the billionaire metaphorically wipes the floor with Agent’s superior. The difference’s not blatant, and lasts only a moment, but it’s enough to pique Steve’s curiosity.

He makes a mental note to ask his clone later, in more favorable circumstances.

___

The answer is presented to him by Iron Man himself, when Stark learns Coulson had been stabbed by Loki.

“He killed Uncle Phil?!” he clarifies in a low voice, eyes positively scorching, obviously pissed off and Steve would feel sorry for the crazy Asgardian, but… you know what, no, not in the slightest. He’d gladly take on the wannabe god himself, but will settle for adding a blow or two for hurting Bucky’s kid if Tony gets there first.

And if they are close enough Stark still refers to Phil as his uncle, well, it’s one more reason to keep an eye on Howard’s offspring, even if he’s factually older than Steve at this point.

___

He doesn’t begrudge Bruce and Hulk their fun. The dent in Tower’s floor is impressive and he feels a tiny pang of disappointment when Tony finally concedes he’d have to have it replaced. Leaving it as it is would be hardly practical though, so he cannot argue.

___

Phil, as it turns out, doesn’t die despite his wound being serious enough it’d fell a normal man. It’s still a closer call than Steve feels comfortable, kid (and isn’t it an odd label for a man more than twice his age – no, Tony, years in the ice do _not_ count) almost bleeding out despite serum working overtime to prevent it.

He's in a coma for a week. In this time place he’s kept in is _flooded_ in flowers, get-well gifts, cards, chocolate bonbons and souvenirs, to the point a spacey room feels tiny and crowded even without many visitors dropping by with a regularity that wouldn’t be amiss in a military base.

Steve visits him for the first time on a second day from the surgery, when he can still see all walls. There’s a man in a chair next to the bed where Phil sleeps, flipping through a newspaper. He’s visibly tired, dark circles under his eyes and three days-worth scruff, but Steve’s not fooled he hadn’t been noticed when the man doesn’t acknowledge at first his hovering at the door, scrubs on or not.

“You’re gonna stand over there all day?” the supposedly avid reader asks without raising his head, giving Steve the incentive to come in. He wonders who he’s faced with.

“How is he?” he says instead. The other makes a noncommittal noise.

“He’ll live. I’m Joey, by the way” steady blue eyes finally meet his “I know who you are.”

Steve merely nods.

“You’re a doctor?”

“Trauma surgeon, actually” he gives a dry smile and looks behind Steve when the door opens again. “Hey, Shar. Lillie. Met The Original already?” he asks two pretty blondes, who stare curiously.

That’s how he meets Peggy’s grandnieces. Conversation, initially barely held together, starts rolling smoothly once Joey starts updating Steve on everyone he knew and their families. Lots can happen in seventy years. Howling Commandos had families, everyone keeping in contact, and apparently the yearly Clan’s Meeting is as much a chaos incarnated as Steve could imagine, capitals entirely deserved. Inwardly, he yearns to attend.

Bucky’s kids all turned okay; Steve Junior is a firefighter, Abe got himself a job of a prosecutor, Jimmy joined CIA, Jack’s a mechanic, Carter is a renowned designer and Howie opened a tattoo shop. Jack and Carter even found someone, and the former’s lady is expecting.

A few members of Howlies’ clan swing by; Steve’s here most of the day with people he doesn’t know but feels a connection of some sort with anyway, and who seem to genuinely care about him in return. He’s not feeling lonely for the first time since the ice, and when he’s sure he’d be finally able to escape and return to his empty apartment to rest and recharge after an onslaught, Tony arrives.

Stark takes one look at Steve and instantly tows him to a swanky restaurant, using all socially acceptable and underhanded methods he can think of on the apprehensive supersoldier. From citing his enhanced metabolism, through bribery – by promising a holster for his shield, which has an appeal and somehow turns into engineering a new, stealthier combat suit on the fly before they even get out of a car – to pestering with requests of telling the stories he was _sure_ Howard either embellished or got wrong. Eventually he got out big guns, offering to drive them to visit Peggy in her home in Philly in the morning.

Steve’s uncomfortable in his simple clothes with so many big cheeses, stares assure him, judging him, but Tony’s outfit is less than stellar, too, and man either doesn’t notice or care, so Steve puts the feeling on a proverbial back burner and orders food. This makes Tony frown and recommend this, and now try that, bet’cha you didn’t have this in the 40’s and you don’t know how to eat it…

After two hours, he’s impressed; the inventor has tricked him into eating every single thing restaurant has on the menu and didn’t let silence descend for more than ten consecutive seconds in the whole time since Phil’s room. Howard’s Mini-Me smiles widely when Steve lets out he knows what he’s doing; a bright, warm smile, so different from cold fakes he shows to people wanting to use him, and when did Steve learn do distinguish them?

“I hope you like it, Freeze-dry, ‘cause you’re one of us now. And we’ll _never_ let you go. Mwahaha!” Tony rubs his hands, doing a fair resemblance of a villain laugh. More than a few people jump in their seats and nervously look around. Stark ignores them. “By the way, Cindy expect you in her office Thursday, ten hundred sharp. The notice is on your phone.” He continues, sliding a sleek piece of electronics onto their table before Steve can open his mouth to protest. “It’s brand new and without junk our favorite shady agency put in outrageously archaic brick they gave you; data’s transferred, so don’t bother, also, I’d really you moved in my Tower or bunked in with someone, ‘cause your apartment’s an empty shoebox of depression and if bugs there were real, you’d be crunching with every step! Now c’mon, we have business to do!”

Despite his loud objections, Tony pulls him to a barber for a new cut (“You can’t show on a date with Aunt Peggy looking like someone’s _grandpa_ , Cap, she’d throw you out!”), and when he’s about to book it he’s introduced to Tony’s most terrifying weapon – one Virginia ‘call me Pepper’ Potts. After an hour of being ordered around in a shop where a single pair o’ jeans could buy half a street back in the forties, Steve decides he’d rather swallow a bullet than ever get on her bad side.

He’s more resigned than anything else when she acclaims his new looks, proclaims his room in Tower ready and invites him for a small family dinner at 8 in one breath, all with a grace of a Queen.

___

His new ‘psychologist’, doctor Cindy Taylor, is no better than Pepper, and when he meets a few more women from The Howling Clan, he can see Peggy’s legacy is worthy and very much alive.

___

Steve takes a three-month leave. He travels on bike from East to West Coast, mostly sightseeing. He has a (long) list of recommended places with best this or other, and makes a good dent in it. His only regular contact are weekly phone appointments with doctor Taylor, but when he has a bad day there are people who always pick up and are glad to hear his voice.

___

He’s back not a fortnight when Fury relocates him to Washington D.C. Perhaps it’s for the best; Peggy is getting worse, this way he can visit her more often. It hurts every time, watching her beautiful sharp mind fail her, grieving for what could be, but, slowly and with significant help, he starts making peace with what happened.

First thing he does is to introduce himself to new neighbors.

“Sharon? What are you doing here?” he asks the blonde who unceremoniously pulls him into her apartment. Steve doesn’t resist. He attended The Meeting. It was a very enlightening event; certain mistakes are not to be repeated. A few luckily weren’t his to begin with.

“I’m your babysitter” the woman bristles.

“I… don’t think I need one?” he offers uncertainly, body language as docile as he can make it.

“Fury’s orders. I lost a draw, now I have to mind you, and my cover’s a nurse at _disease ward_.” She forces through clenched teeth.

Steve makes a face. Peg’s niece pretending to have the same job as his mother? He’d really like to have a word with whoever came up with the scenario. He’d bet it’s the same incompetent fool who did environment for his awakening.

“What? And no one even realized we know each other?” he huffs. “ _How_?”

“Personally I blame Phil, you supers are all trolls. Anyway, it’s clear here; you dispose of bugs at yours on your own. Coffee?” she offers, firing up a grinder before he can answer.

“Yes please.” It won’t do anything to him, but right now he feels the need to hold onto _something_.

___

He quite likes Sam; he’s one of few people out there who both recognize and treat him like a normal person. It’s nice to stretch social muscles and make friends outside of his usual social circle.

___

Dying Fury said not to trust anyone, and Steve personally agrees. Director’s friends are shady shit, just like Fury himself. Steve prefers his.

Tony, for one, he trust implicitly. Stark and Jarvis do their magic on the flash, teaming up on Zola and his algorithm to squeeze every ounce of information the disgusting creature has in mere minutes.

“That’s for my _parents_ , scum” the inventor sneers at the screen, pressing a final key. Internet connection in Camp Lehigh fails, trapping Zola on the computer. They watch with grim satisfaction a holo of everything being blown to Hell. In the meantime, AI hunts down nazi’s emergency copies plus every piece of possibly vital intel about Hydra’s business on SHIELD’s servers and in various places on net. It’s not an easy work, even Jarvis’ operational capabilities are put to the test, but it’s the best they can do.

The Clan’s on high alert, and anyone that can be spared, digs. The window of reaction is getting ever smaller, passing minutes revealing their situation to be worse. To cut the losses they need precise, coordinated strikes at as many vital points as possible.

Steve gets down to what he does best – planning. Everything his enhanced brain cooks up is put under fire of other capable commanders, and he does the same for them. The scale of Hydra’s contamination is disheartening, but it’s not in his nature to give up without a fight.

___

He and Nat are discovered, and they need to change positions yesterday. The redhead gets hit during evac and refuses to risk going to one of her safehouses.

“They are all likely busted” she explains, clutching her shoulder.

Steve steers them to the first place he can think of that no one else would.

They knock on Sam’s door.

___

“ _Bucky_?!”

___

“Hydra has Bucky; he’s the Winter Soldier.” Steve tells Phil the first occasion he has. His clone’s on videoconference with Hill, Tony and (so many and yet so few) others, plotting resources and logistics.

There’s a beat of silence; everyone freezes while the information computes.

“Jarvis, activate protocol G-Beta-7-Theta, password: Shadow” Agent Coulson throws, cold fury burning in blue eyes belying a calm tone. “And C-L-3, while you’re at it, password: teddy bear.”

“ _Certainly, Sir. Protocols activated._ ”

“What are these?” Steve asks. As much as he’s up-to-date with New Commando, some things he didn’t realize _existed_.

Phil manages a small, vindictive smile.

“We’re getting Dad back.”

___

Even with all their preparation, Triskellion is… difficult. They have a list of Hydra agents, but it’s by no means a full one. Tony makes special tactical glasses differentiating possible friends and definite foes, amongst other toys he handles out generously, but those make the op minimally less TARFUN.

Sam has the misfortune to cross paths with Bucky, who rips his wings off and throws him off the ledge. Former paratrooper’s bitching about it at the top of his lungs all the way down.

“ _Shut it, Bird Brain 2.0, I’ll make you a new, better set_.” Tony impatiently disrupts the offended speech.

Steve listens in on snark exchange with one ear, absent-mindedly braining out a bunch of hostiles. He’s got places to be and they obstruct his way.

“ _Hawkeye here, package’s down, I repeat, package’s down. Send a courier._ ” They hear a few seconds later.

“ _Understood, Hawkeye, courier’s on the way_ ” woman’s voice replies. Steve breaths out.

“He’s alive?” he asks.

“ _Maybe. He needed four pills to drop_.” Clint answers in a light tone.

“ _Four_?! They were made for _Hulk_!” he exclaims.

“ _Believe me, Cap, he’d rather be dead than go back._ ” The archer turns serious; Steve winces at the reminder of both Winter Soldier’s file and Chitauri disaster. Clint’s coping, getting better with time, but he isn’t going to be entirely okay any time soon, perhaps never. If Bucky survives being drugged to the gills, he has a long, perilous path to go before reaching semi-okay point.

There’s an intense burst of shots through coms, but no one calls for help or anything, so he doesn’t steer off the course. He’s not the only cavalry here, besides, _nor_ the head of the op, so not his problem right now. In the background designated courier picks up the package and retreats to safety, covered by team’s guns and an innovative active camo.

___

They blow up Helicarriers, because of course they blow up Helicarriers. See what the supposed-to-be-on-a-light-side agency tried to use them for. Not gonna leave ‘em for Hydra’s remaining splinters or anyone else to copy, that’s for sure. Tony whines about ‘destroying beautiful pieces of tech’, but then lets out a ‘mad scientist’ cackle right after as pillars of flames and smoke go sky-high, so no-one’s remotely fooled.

Surprise surprise, one of the ‘spoils’ is Loki’s scepter, salvaged from the biggest European base. They also find a baker’s dozen people kept there, mostly local teens. They let them out and it’s the last they hear of those kids. Scepter ends in the most remote secure location they can find, until Thor’s return.

They drop SHIELD’s servers on web for all to see and judge, Jarvis working motherboard-to-shoulder with human ITs to fish out good people from amongst Hydra incriminating info as they find them.

Approximately half the agency had no ties to nazi fanatics, and they and their families don’t deserve to be casualties of this disaster. They have enough of them already. Trip is lost, as is Lillie, Ashley, Timmy Jr… Sometimes even Hulk can’t save you, only make sure your killers won’t do it to anyone else. It would have been much, much worse if Clan didn’t do what they did, but it’s with heavy hearts and on dead feet the survivors sit for a post-mission debrief-turned-memorial, celebrate the success and weep for dear people who didn’t make it.

A silver lining comes with an exhausted Abe, who brings an official proclamation for one James Barnes to be the longest-kept POW, guiltless of acts he was made to do under Hydra, and a hero acknowledged by US of A. Everyone were busy lately.

___

Bucky resides in Hulk containment room. It’s not that different from the first one Steve had seen, but this one has definitely less ‘medical experiment’ vibes. Before they had who to put in there, Doctor Taylor, who got sick impressive two times reading Winter Soldier’s file (Tony hit three before giving up on it entirely), had let in kids with a few adults (who acted as mobile ladders), lots of stickers and a bunch of crayons, telling them to go crazy on it. As predicted, children made a mess of walls and ceiling in all the colors of a rainbow. It made less-than-desirable quarters more inviting than bare, clinical white, while none of it could be weaponized.

So far it works; on waking up with only a mattress and contents of a paper tray for a visible company, former Asset looked around for long minutes, bewildered taking in the cheerful pictures, smiley faces, odd blots of pastel and occasional sloppy ‘GEt wElll uNcl BuckY’. While interacting he’s distrustful and withdrawn, but doesn’t get aggressive. It’s a promising start.

He _adores_ the kids. Small humans break him out of his shell much more efficiently than any adult; Steve blames Bucky’s rearing parenting instincts.

He gets a coloring book and a stack of (mostly tech) journals to have something to do between visits.

Soon, Hulk’s containment reminds Steve of Phil’s recovery room.

___

On a day he gets a normal room, Bucky also gets to hold Adam, Jack’s son, so… his grandson?

Bucky looks down on a thoughtful toddler who’s chewing on his fist, with a face of someone who’s discovered the most precious thing in the world, and tears up when small terror tugs on his beard. Steve’s not quite sure whether from emotions or pain, but his personal bet’s on both. Little tyke definitely inherited Steve’s strength.

Steve watches Carmen, Jack’s spouse, take photos and send them to everyone, all the while grinning like a Cheshire cat. He shakes his head in fond exasperation.

___

Bucky does get to see ‘his boys' in a baseball league, or at least the best resemblance of one he can hope to. It plays out like one could expect; the favored team easily wins.

It’s not them.

Susan, Dernier’s youngest great-granddaughter, invites her schoolmates to her birthday party, which coincides with this year’s Meeting, and they arrive in abundance with a bunch of minders. From there it’s only a matter of time ‘til someone gets an idea to pitch Steve & Clones against the guests.

It just so happens Susan’s in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

Steve’s team takes defeat with dignity and good humor. Only Howard pouts a little, though mostly for show.

Bucky laughs so hard he cries. He doesn’t let them forget it, ever.


End file.
